Pierre Morache of Carcassone in France acted as the Good Samaritan when he helped three youths push-start a car. He failed to realize that it was actually his own car until it started and disappeared down the street right in front of his own eyes.

The “Wicked Bible” published in London in 1631 was so-called because of a printing error. In Exodus 20:14, the seventh commandment reads: “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

A number of men in the US responded to an ad promoting what they thought was the bargain of the century: a penis enlarger for just $25. They were disappointed when all they received was a magnifying glass.

Lieutenant Colonel Julio Ramon Rivera was incensed after police in El Salvador arrested three Salvadoran employees of the US Embassy for drinking and carrying weapons. Arriving at the police station, he wanted to prove that the weapons were all replicas and proceeded to pull the pin on a grenade. It was, of course, real and the resultant explosion killed Rivera, two police officers and two of the detained employees.

In 1849, Brooklyn, New York, inventor Walter Hunt invented and patented the safety pin and then sold all the rights for $400. A hundred years later, the US was producing an estimated five billion safety pins a year. Hunt died penniless in 1859.